DJI Ban. Arkansas lawmakers have joined a small but growing group of officials in the US who want to make it official that government agencies implement the DJI drones ban made in China. This “blacklisting” movement was started by politicians in Washington who wanted to hurt the industry leader DJI.
Arkansas Act 525 makes buying or using drones made by Chinese or other foreign companies illegal on official US blocklists. It says that UAVs made by “covered foreign entities” that aren’t allowed to be used by some The State of Arkansas or any of its departments or groups, like the police and fire services, can’t buy US government agencies.
Arkansas’s new law allows people who own DJI drones that are now illegal until 2027 to get rid of them unless they get a waiver from the state’s Department of Transport to keep using them.
Arkansas’s law came about because of the same claims that led the federal government to DJI drones ban in the past. These claims include that data gathered by the company’s UAVs are being sent back to the Chinese Communist Party for immoral purposes.
Because the Arkansas rule is based on what these federal agencies have already done, the people who wrote it just repeated the same unproven claims about DJI used to justify blocklisting in Washington.
Read: A new bill in the US wants to ban DJI drones in a much bigger way.
In comments to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Monday, the law’s co-sponsor, Republican House member Brit McKenzie, called its passage “a commonsense measure to protect our state agencies and our local departments.”
McKenzie used even harsher language than is usually heard in Washington to explain why DJI drones ban should be done. However, he followed the national conversation without giving any proof for his criticism.
McKenzie said of DJI, “It’s a terrible actor.” He said this to the local news. “It’s a military company in China. We can call it 16 things under the sun, but that’s all.”
Read: Blocklisting is back: GOP lawmakers are going after DJI ban again. DJI Drone Ban
DJI Ban
Also typical of US Congress members when they explain why they are going after DJI, McKenzie finally gave away his hand by saying that the ban is at least partly meant to hurt DJI’s leadership in the US and worldwide in drone sales and help American competitors.
He asked, “Why are they still so cheap?” “I have to think that’s on purpose so that agencies or groups of people will buy them,” he said.
After being unable to explain why that goal is only bad when DJI uses it, McKenzie added to the idea that protectionism is behind the effort by telling someone who didn’t ask that protectionism has nothing to do with it.
“That’s the best thing about the bill,” McKenzie said, sometimes getting confused. “It doesn’t force people to buy things made in the United States. Instead, it tells companies they can’t make drones like China or Russia. It’s not a bill to protect businesses. It’s a bill about safety.”
On the other hand, DJI denied again that it has ties to or works for the Chinese government. It said its goods are made for and valuable to consumers and businesses.
DJI Ban
After the DJI Drones ban, the US DoD has officially put drone company DJI on a block list.
The Democrat-Gazette story from yesterday has sped up the spread of the news that the Arkansas bill was passed. The last significant change to the text seems to have happened on April 5, when it was “ordered transmitted to the Governor’s Office.”
Ironically, that was also the day that a new law in Florida made it illegal for government agencies to use drones made in a “foreign country of concern.” In reporting on the ban, Seth Kurkowski of DroneDJ said that Florida’s “police agencies are not happy” that they can’t keep using their DJI drone fleets.
Arkansas police departments don’t seem any happier about losing their DJI drones ban because of the states. However, this is a familiar feeling as the bans get broader. Little Rock’s version of the DJI ban is also similar in another way: it doesn’t come with the funding increases that would be needed to pay for usually more expensive domestic replacements.
May 3 Update: DJI ban
Just a few hours after DJI Drones ban posted the above article, Alabama joined the growing number of states that have made it illegal for state agencies to buy or use drones made in China.
DJI Drone Ban
Alabama congressman James Lomax suggested a bill that it would be against the law for state governments to buy UAVs made by Chinese companies on the Federal Office of Foreign Asset Control’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.
The state-wide ban was made because Lomax worried that suspicious UAVs might spy on the US Army’s Redstone Arsenal near his home in Huntsville. And what’s suitable for Huntsville has to be good for the whole state.
The DJI Ban Saga
At the same time, politicians in Florida started figuring out how to pay for the Chinese on DJI drones ban last month. Florida lawmakers are giving $25 million for purchase so that state agencies can buy other UAV technologies to replace the DJI favorites that have been banned.This help will come from taxpayers, who probably won’t like being put on a watchlist more than police forces in Florida or Arkansas.
One very imporant clarifying point to Act 525 is this only applies to government agencies within Arkansas. This law has zero impact on anybody who owns and operates DJI who does not do so as part of a state, county, or city government agency within the Natural State.